Week 2 Studs & Duds + Big Ben & Brees Injury Fallout

you know, make one side of the fan base feel bad. But I don't think they should have been granted that timeout. I don't think that that was a fair play on the... Oh, with the one second left? You guys saw the end of that game. I think... I don't think it was a... I don't think it was a... I don't think it was a... I don't think it was a... I don't think it was a... It seemed like they ran out of time to me too, but... To me, if you're down with one second and you're calling time out immediately, I don't know. It was really tight. Philip Rivers, Kirk Cousins, also terrible games. Kirk Cousins is not startable right now. This is not good.

Not good for Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. Yeah. And Rivers, you know, Phil Rivers. Sometimes he performs. Sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes they lean on the running game. Sometimes he throws interceptions. He's a middling streaming option. Yes. Running back. Stinkers of the week. This one's unfortunate. Get your odor is. Get your odor eaters out. Yes. Alvin Camara, 13 for 45. Has he ever been in this list?

Probably not. I mean, maybe once. The thing that's going to hurt a lot is, I mean, a lot's going to hurt. I mean, no Drew Breeze, it changed your whole offense. But the reliance, the chemistry on the receiving end for Alvin Camara with Drew Breeze, I'm very concerned about this. You only had three targets in this game. One reception. It's gross. We said throw Latavius Murray out. He had five carries in one catch. You know, not good.

But Alvin Khmerer, what are you going to do? You're going to play Alvin Kamer. Yes. He's too good. Christian McCaffrey, you're going to play him. It doesn't matter if he's stung. Now, Joe Mixon, he fought through an injury to get into this game pretty much put up a stat line as though he hadn't played. I mean, 11 for 17, 3 for 10 through the air. Gio just had six rushes. It was pretty gross overall. They have Buffalo next week. That is not a good matchup for them on the road. You're still going to play him, right? I mean.

I was benching mixing this week. Yes, this week makes sense. This week he was coming off the ankle. You don't know how much he's actually going to be used. That totally makes sense to bench him this week. But next week, another week removed from the ankle, he is still the starting, you know, workhorse running back for this team. Presumably his ankle is completely fine by then. Bad matchup. I wouldn't play.

Really? If I had options. I mean, that's what it comes down to. But options being like this, let me illustrate it. If I'm sitting there going, do I throw Miles Sanders out there in week three or do I throw David Montgomery out there in week three? Those are the kind of players you would have gotten late that maybe you have the option of putting mixing on the bench for. It's a tough matchup. I don't know if the upside's really there against Buffalo. If he practices all week, maybe that opinion changes. But, you know, Mike, would you be playing mixing over both of those players?

I side with you that I want to see Joe Mixen be healthy and I want to see him be active in this offense as well. Just a funny side tangent through two weeks. Andy Dalton is averaging nearly 47 attempts a game. If you want to continue that through the whole season, that would be 744 attempts. Can you get the Kyla Murray pace for me? Because I know he's on pace for more. Yeah, he's on pace to break the record.

It's just funny to see Andy Dalton. Like, this is such a different offense, man. Well, and they're being put in a position. I mean, 43 points they gave up to Jimmy Garoppolo. If you're, if you go down, if this defense is looking like it is right now, you're going to be in this situation for Andy Dalton every week. And the difference is, is Zach Taylor feels confident enough in his offensive scheme and the players around Dalton to say,

We're going to try to come back in this game with your arm as opposed to on the ground. So Andy Dalton is 46 and a half attempts per game. Kyla Murray is a full 47. So yeah, a lot of passing attempts there. Tariq Cohen, what do you do with him? Four for 18 on the ground, two for seven through the air. Well, it was an ugly offensive performance when your quarterback throws 120 total passing. I was going to say he is, he is basically more of a wide receiver than a running back right now. And his quarterback is Trubisky.

So, yeah, you don't want to start him. If you can look elsewhere, please do. To weigh in there for a second on something important. I mean, David Montgomery got a lot more work this week compared to Mike Davis. Mike Davis was an afterthought in this game. Yeah, well, yeah. He was a touch afterthought. He was not a snap afterthought when you see them around the goal line. And they're sitting there with Mitch Trubisky on the three. And Mike Davis comes in for third down. That's annoying. That just makes you frustrated.

It's nice to see the transition start to happen, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm playing Montgomery next week. Snap-wise, not necessarily carry, but snap, what you're speaking to, he was 56% of snaps in week one. He was down to 24% in week two. Wonderful. 18 carries for David Montgomery, three targets. Yeah, he finally got them opportunity. I will say this. He hasn't taken advantage of them opportunity yet. Two games in each game, under four a carry in both of them. So.

And it took him like six goal line opportunities to get that touchdown. Yeah. He failed, failed, failed, failed, penalty, failed, got in. But I'm playing him. I would be, yeah, I'll play him next week too. But I would be trying to, you know, if I'm playing the Bears, I'm stopping the running game. And I'm putting it all on Mr. Biskey. Each and every week if I want to beat them. So that can make it challenging. Okay. And so.

Duke Johnson didn't do anything in this game. I feel like fantasy owner scrambling to wonder, can you play him? Yeah, bringing up Duke Johnson, I think you have to bring up his counterpart, which is Carlos Hyde, who had 20 attempts, 20 carries for 90 yards on the ground. I mean, Carlos Hyde has looked great. It was still Duke Johnson as the primary guy in week one, but you saw a huge swing.

to Carlos Hyde. So how are you approaching both these players? Are you to the point where you'll say, okay, I'll play Carlos Hyde against the Chargers or are you going to bench both of them? I'm somewhat willing to sniff Carlos Hyde, but I would still rather. In the Stinkers of the Weeks segment, you're going to sniff Carlos Hyde? You know, I would rather not. The matchup against the Chargers isn't that bad. It's not a good smell if you do that. But Duke Johnson.

Duke Johnson, I'm not going to touch him. It's funny. I would play Duke in that matchup over Carlos High. Dude, you can't play Duke. He's a pass-catching running back that's playing for a team that doesn't throw the ball to the running backs. He had one target, and he scares me. I wouldn't touch Duke. Okay. Maybe by midweek we'll have a Carlos Hyde versus Duke Waterbet, the kind that we'll tell our kids about. Yes. All right, Devonta Freeman.

11 for 22. It's been pretty ugly for Devante Freeman so far. Chris Carson 15 for 60, which is fine. Three for 27 through the air is whatever, but he fumbled twice. And this is the concern that, you know, is he going to be, these are very costly fumbles from Chris Carson. Both of them were, especially the last one. And do they start to just force the ball into Rashad, Penny's hands? Pitting had a good game. They had a breakaway touchdown.

You know, it's too early to tell. I would say that the loyalty factor that you usually see from Pete Carroll, he's loyal to his guys. So I don't expect them to punish Chris Carson. How long of a run? There was a 37-yard run, right? For the penny touchdown? The penny touchdown. At the top of my head, I do not know. So outside of that, he was nine for 25. So that's not a good game. 2.7 a carry in terms of production. So I would tend to lean on the...

After breaking that down, lean on the side of Carson is just a better runner. But if he fumbles, here's the risk. If he fumbles in the middle of a game, you could see the pine for a while with Chris Carson. Because they take Mike's favorite approach of, hey, let's punish the whole team for your mistake, Chris. The running back is such a strange position because they get pulled off, you know, they get punished for things like a fumble.

They get swapped in and out with other running backs because you made a mistake. Oh, you missed this blitz pickup, which you don't want your team making mistakes. But the running back position is treated unlike a wide receiver. A wide receiver goes out. If he had a drop, goes out, he drops the ball. You're like, okay, we'll throw it to you the next play. A wide receiver goes out, has a bad drop, tips the ball into the air.

and it gets picked off. Generally speaking, they're not going to do anything to that wide receiver. A wide receiver. I said generally speaking. Generally speaking. Wide receiver whiffs on blocking a running play. They're still on the field. We're getting next time. But the running back, like, well, we're not going to pay you and we're going to send you to the bench for screwing up. How scared are you guys about Devont to Freeman? Are you with me yet? Uh, 11 for 22 on the ground. Sure. It, it.

I'm no mathematician. No, I understand the production was bad. Three for 42 is better. If they aren't going to utilize them in the passing game more, then I will be worried. Watching him play. Certainly doesn't feel like a running back one moving forward. He's got to be in the two, three category. I'm adjusting expectations. But watching him play, once he's finally in space, he still look, to me, looks like Devonta Freeman. Looks a little bigger. But you can't run.

in between the tackles with that offensive line, at least not right now. 62% snaps for Freeman. Yeah, that went up. 38% for Edo. Yeah, it was 50-50, week one. Also, Philip Lindsay, 13 for 36. There's a real problem here with Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman's situation on a bad offense. Royce Freeman was better. Royce Freeman out snapped him, and Royce Freeman had over 100 yards from scrimmage. Seven targets for Royce Freeman. He's good, Mike.

Jason spent the whole entire Sunday bemoaning the fact that he had Royce Freeman on his redraft team. He's like, Royce, please do something so I can trade you. But I think you should trade for him, Mike. No, I'm not going to trade for him. But at the end of next week, you might be real happy that Royce Freeman's on your team. I don't think you're going to be happy with either player. I agree. Because you have two players that are worthy of getting number one.

running back snaps and they're on the same team and this offense is atrocious right now. That's the problem to me. I mean, are you ever going to be in a position where you feel confident starting him this year? And I think the answer is no. No. I mean, when you get to buy weeks, when you get to buy weeks and injuries happen, that's why like I can't drop him even though I feel like he's a roster clog. I wish I could trade him for like a crisp pickle or something that I could get use out of.

I heard you use, I heard the name Chris Pickle as in the man Chris Pickle is this superstar NFL player that I've never heard of him. Christopher Pickle. Who's, by the way, friends with Byron Pringle. Of course. Because that's the name that popped into my head. Stash Chris Pickle. Yeah, he's good with him. Week 8. Daryl Anderson. Darnel. Darnel, sorry. All right. Running back stinkers. Sorry, wide receiver stinkers. DeAndre Hopkins, Robert Woods.

Any concerns with those two long term? Robert Woods, just two for 33. Robert Woods had two really good plays called back on penalty, one of which was a touchdown. So we were like, yes, he had a great week. And then it was like, oh, it didn't exist. So I'm not concerned with Woods. He was two calls away from a great game. If you're concerned with Hopkins, you should quit fantasy. Yes. Mike Evans, Alan Robinson, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon. I don't feel like Mike Evans belongs here.

Four for 61 on eight targets. You're disappointed. Yeah, that's true, Brooks. Get him out of here. But I don't feel like he was a stupid. Okay. And then Edelman and Gordon. Now, I had kind of made up my mind heading into the weekend on Saturday. As I'm thinking about this, will A, B, play, will he not play? I just decided on Saturday that I said, on my teams, I'm benching Josh Gordon.

If A.B. Place. That was just the decision I made. I didn't know how much they would need him and these players against Miami, which proved they didn't. They scored two defensive touchdowns. But Josh Gordon, just two for 19. Julian Edelman, just four for 51, including, I think one of those is real late in the game, kind of just wasting the clock out. Antonio Brown, on the other hand, ends up with a touchdown. So where are you with this wide receiver core?

You know, we have to wait this week. The NFL is meeting with the accuser. So I think we will know a whole lot more later this week as to whether Antonio Brown is going to be playing for the Pats this year or if he's going to be on the commissioner's exempt list. And that changes everything. Antonio Brown, I feel like could very easily become the one for this team if he is active this year. They seem to force. I think he is the one if he's active. Yeah, I agree with you. So that hurts Gordon. That hurts Edelman. But I actually think.

assuming that like in the world where he is playing this whole year for the Patriots, I think all three are startable options. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I think I'd have a hard time starting Gordon if Antonio Brown ends up. I agree. They have New York, Buffalo, Washington coming up. And it's such a wacky game to try and extract any valuable information of where it was Antonio Brown's first game. Brown still didn't play a huge amount of snaps.